TVJOURN, DOCPRO, ACTING, OH MY!

BOOYAH!!!
My top 3 choices of electives, all in! Beat that =P

I've already known of this since monday, just wanted to wait til thursday when i can make sure.
Of course, this piece of good news just HAD to come with a consequence. Monday happened to be the day that our attachment/internship results came out.

Guess what? I got a friggin B+

Checking with the people around me, it seemed that A's are more common than B's and B+'s for the attachment program.
Oh well, at least it's managed to pull my accumulated GPA to 2.8... just hope that i get to keep this up to a 3.2 at least...

While sharing our attachment grades, Disa asked me this question: "Why should I ask around other people's grades?"
This led to my creation of 'Grade Sharing Ethics'. This is a set of rules that we should follow to facilitate the basic human nature of inquisitiveness. To put it simply, this set of rules will help us know each others' grades easily with ease and no harm will be done to our relationships. Here goes:

1. Ask as simply as possible - Cut the long story short, cut to the chase, get to the point. We just want to know their grades so it'll be better if we just pop up in their instant messengers and say ''Yo, how're your grades?"

2. Blame it on the lecturer - Rather than putting yourself down or boasting about your prowess, I think that it is wiser to just say 'aiyah must be Mr. XXXX's help!' This will direct any hate generated away from everyone and onto the lecturer. I know this is evil but it beats quarreling over a piece of paper!

3. 'not as good as you' and 'slightly better' - of course always phrase your words properly so as not to offend your potential groupmate!

4. Do not hide your grades - Many would think that it is better to not tell others your grades. Contrary to popular believe, doing so would generate gossip on both extremes. Very bad for your reputation!

5. Ask around and keep notes - It is always courteous to keep a note of the grades scored by those you've approached. This will help others get a clear picture of who's where. The other purpose is to prevent frustration; imagine 50 people asking you the same thing simultaneously!

Cheers!

Hana Yori Dango Final!

Went along with Kaori, Xin E and Gaynous (Sorry I dunno how to spell! Sorry!) yesterday to catch a movie none of you would imagine someone like me would even associate myself with.

Yes, the title says it all...

If you're familiar with Taiwan's ''Meteor Garden'', you'd probably be wondering why the characters in both movies have the same name. Guess what? ''Meteor Garden'' started off as a copy of the original ''Hana Yori Dango'' story before branching off into their own taiwanese storyline in the later seasons.

While the movie finishes off the drama series, it starts off from a point in the story where first timers are able to get a grasp of the situation before the story rockets off to the complications. Of course, prior knowledge of the background would allow you to better enjoy the story.

The combination of scriptwriting, music, acting and camerawork was enough to keep the viewers from dozing off. The last time I checked, the Dark Knight hypnotized an eighth (exaggeration) of the viewers to sleep through his film of the same length.

Of course, while the story is interesting, I still don't think that any movie should be SOOOOO LOOOOONG! It is almost impossible for any healthy human being to sit through the 2 1/2 hours without having to make a heart wrenching decision between thirst and the toilet.

One thing I don't really like about the film is that there're 5 young men for the female viewers to ogle at (6 if you include the thief) while there's only cutey Makino throughout a great part of the film! UNFAIR MUCH!?!?!

Jokes aside, I think that the film is worth the watch taking into account that it doesn't bother me to read the subtitles when I fail to understand the words and the fact that I had to hold my piss from the moment they reach the island (this was already shown in the trailer so I am not spoiling the movie for you =P)

3.5/5 Satays from me!

Overdue Photos

Been too busy with the COMEX to post some really old photos from long ago.

This was the best pick from my lot of photos taken during a getai, which is similar to what many would call a mini-concert. The interesting thing about these shows is that the songs featured are all of an older generation as the main audience are actually the spirits that wonder about during the 7th lunar month, also known as the Hungry Ghost Festival.

Random stuff you see in my room...

The COMEX 2008 28th-31st Aug

COMEX 2008 Singapore
Originally uploaded by mysilentkaopei

$900 in 4 days! (well... at least that's what I calculated)

It was a gruesome weekend for me as I worked at the recent COMEX promoting SONY Handycams and Alphas to some thousands of visitors. Of course, it's not my first time doing so at a major exhibition but every show feels like the first as we never know what kind of situation we could get into.

Possibly due to the inflation, there was a noticeable drop in sales and customers alike. I, for one, have seen the entire Handycam booth empty for the first time in my years of promoting.

Unfortunately, the fact that I've experience with SONY products didn't help me one bit, as I was appointed to the 4th level of the Suntec Convention building, which halls the competitor brands. On the other hand, the younger and greener promoters were assigned to the 3rd level which consisted purely of SONY products.

Well, the situations and prices can change over the years but the customers certainly don't. After so long of promotion, I've learnt to differentiate customers into different kinds.

A. Woodblocks
They don't talk, they don't move, they don't even respond to you. All they do is stand in front of your booth and stare at your products. Some eventually buy, but most of them just walk away after you let off a fart. Waste of customer space and oxygen to top it up. Woodblock them and ask your customer to squeeze at the woodblocks, it usually pisses them off.

B. Chatterbox
Similarly to the woodblocks, they're a waste of promotion space. Other than the fact that they will not buy anything, they have a super-mouth to get even the most experienced of promoters into trouble. These lonely beings are simply there for a chat, and telling them to buzz off would end up with a complaint to your superior even though they weren't potential customers to begin with. Avoid by engaging a real customer while he is thinking of words to blurt out!

C. Clueless
They have a lot of cash, they have a lot of time, but they have ZERO knowledge of the product. Although they are willing to make a purchase, be prepared to spend at least half an hour explaining the functions and operations to them. Engage only if the product they're interested in commissions well. Otherwise try a hit-and-run strategy and only answer questions they ask.

D. Bargain Freaks
They're looking at cheap, cheap and nothing but cheap. They don't care what freebies are coming together with the product, they just want it cheap. Even if it means buying it elsewhere at $100 cheaper and losing $300 of freebies, they'd do it. They are unavoidable as this nature only surface halfway through a sales talk. What's more, the TV retailers are corrupting the market so much with their 'last day promotions' that these bargain freaks often appear only on the last day before walking off upon hearing that nothing has changed!

E. Self-Opinionated Surveyors
They already have a brand in mind, but they just want to walk to the other brands to trash them just so they feel better about their purchase. If you need to do that to make your purchase a more enjoyable one, perhaps you need to be looking at what I'm selling???

F. Durians
Like how these beauties are harvested, the durians drop out of the blue and presents to you the greatest surprise of all - a finger pointing at a high end model accompanied by the sweet melody of ''GIMME ONE!''... How I love thee, if only more customers learn from these durians and do their homework before going out to try out the cameras.

Of course, customers are always customers, and the customer is always right. Being in the service industry has taught me to learn to be humble and understand that I am not always the man at the top of the hill.

Now, on to healing my throat from all that yelling... aaaaaAAAAA~~~~